Beer and gravy promises fun a-plenty in bumper Bank Holiday weekend

World Gravy Wrestling at the Rose n Bowl pub last year, and inset, the Haslingden Cricket Club beer festival

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There is fun a-plenty to be had in the Valley this Bank Holiday weekend for families, ale lovers and fans of the weird and wonderful.

There are two beer festivals, the return of a charity family fun day and the world famous World Gravy Wrestling Championships.

The ever-popular gravy wrestling will return to the Rose ‘n Bowl in Stacksteads on Monday, August 28 to raise funds for the East Lancashire Hospice. Costumed participants will battle it out in the sauce-soaked tournament.

A spokesperson for the East Lancashire Hospice described it as a “wild and wacky wrestling competition in a pool full of Lancashire gravy.”

They added: “All our contestants get sponsorship and really give it their all to raise money for charity.

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“Without a doubt this is one of the world’s craziest culinary competitions.”

Doors will open at 12.30pm with the action getting underway at 1pm, at a cost of £2.50 per adult and £1.50 per child.

The Helmshore Beer Festival, which is in its second year, will run across the whole of the weekend from August 25-28 at Kiln Clough Farm.

It will feature a variety of 32 different beers which includes all eight of the Northern Whisper Company beers - and will see the launch of the Cloughfold-based brewery’s very first lager. There will also be food, live music and entertainment at the farm, just off Helmshore Road.

It will run from 2pm to 11pm on Friday, 1pm to 11pm on Saturday and Sunday, and 12noon to 6pm on Monday.

Organiser of the Helmshore Beer Festival Barney Vines

Haslingden Cricket Club, on Private Lane, is holding its fifth annual beer festival from Friday, August 25 to Sunday, August 27.

There will be 20 cask ales, homemade pies and live music and entertainment and Lancashire League cricket on the Saturday and Sunday. The festival will open from 4pm on Friday and Saturday and Sunday from 12noon.

A family fun day is scheduled for Saturday, August 26 at Rossendale Rugby Club at Marl Pits in aid of the Epilepsy Society, from 2pm to 5pm.

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It is free to attend with face painting, bouncy castle, hook-a-duck, wacky races and stalls. An adult charity evening will follow from 7pm till late at a cost of £15 admission, which includes supper, a quiz, drag act and DJ.

Organiser Angela Clegg said: “It’s in its fourth year but we keep changing it, this is the first year we have held the evening event. People do enjoy it because there are lots of different things to do, it gets a good reception.

“We just like to help a good cause. There are quite a few things happening this Bank Holiday so people can make a weekend of it.”

Charity event tribute to terror attack victim

An outdoor and camping store is hosting a charity fun day in Haslingden in memory of a teenager who was tragically killed in the Manchester terror attack.

Winfields is staging the event at its store on Blackburn Road on Saturday, August 26 to raise funds for a high school’s music department in honour of pupil Olivia Campbell-Hardy’s love of music.

Olivia Campbell-Hardy

There will be live bands, including the Boutiques and The Joe Publix, a scooter and motorcycle rally, raffles with prizes from local businesses and kids fun fair and face painting at the store, as well as appearances from TV personalities and Star Wars stormtroopers.

A spokesperson for the Hazel Mill store said: “All money raised will be donated to Olivia’s school, Tottington High School, in the hope that they can buy school instruments for pupils to carry on the love that Olivia had for singing and her passion of music.”

There is a £5 entry fee for all scooters and motorcycles with awards going to the best bikes and the fun day runs from 11am until 7pm.

Olivia, 15, was among 22 people who died in the suicide bombing at Manchester Arena on May 22.